Bound runs & periodicals
Sell Legal Journals
Yes — particularly bound runs with the years unbroken.
Academic and practitioner journals are the part of a law library people most often assume nobody wants. Long bound runs of the established titles are genuinely saleable, and a complete run is worth considerably more than the same years scattered as loose issues.
Which journals
The established titles, and the long runs behind them.
The journals we see most often are the long-standing academic and practitioner titles: the Law Quarterly Review, published by Sweet & Maxwell since 1885; the Modern Law Review, running since 1937 and long associated with the LSE; the Cambridge Law Journal; the Criminal Law Review; Public Law; the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies; the New Law Journal; and specialist titles such as Lloyd’s Maritime and Commercial Law Quarterly.
That is not an exhaustive list. If a title has been published consistently for decades and a firm or chambers has kept the run, it is worth asking about — including subject-specific journals in areas like employment, family, planning or intellectual property.
What drives the value
Runs, binding, and how complete the years are.
An unbroken run
The single biggest factor. A continuous run of years is worth substantially more than the same volume count with gaps, because a gap sits exactly where somebody might need to look.
Bound or loose
Professionally bound annual volumes are easier to shelve and resell than loose issues in date order. Loose issues are still bought — they are simply valued differently.
How far back it goes
Depth matters for journals in a way it doesn’t for superseded practitioner texts. A run reaching back several decades is genuinely harder to replace than a recent one.
Working out what you have
The spines will tell us more than a list will.
Journal citations are heavily abbreviated — LQR, MLR, CLJ, Crim LR — and it is entirely normal not to know what a run is without checking. You don’t need to identify anything before contacting us: a photograph of the spines is enough. If you would like to work it out yourself, our guide to law report and journal abbreviations covers the common ones.
Journals usually sit alongside the reports and practitioner texts rather than separately, so there is no need to separate them out. Photograph the shelf as it stands and we will identify what is there.
Common questions
Frequently asked
Do you buy legal journals and periodicals?
Yes. Bound runs of established titles such as the Law Quarterly Review, Modern Law Review, Cambridge Law Journal and Criminal Law Review are all worth an enquiry, along with specialist subject journals.
Are loose issues worth anything, or only bound volumes?
Both are bought. Professionally bound annual volumes are easier to resell and valued accordingly, but loose issues in a complete run are still worth sending a photo of.
My run has gaps in it. Is it still worth an enquiry?
Yes. Gaps reduce the figure rather than rule a run out — and it’s common for a run to be missing the odd year. Send a photo and we’ll tell you where it stands.
Do I need to identify the journals before contacting you?
No. Journal titles are heavily abbreviated on the spine and it’s normal not to know. A photograph of the shelf is enough for us to work out what’s there.
Not sure if yours qualifies?
Send a photo and we'll tell you straight.
Four details and we’ll come back with a valuation, usually within 24 hours. Nothing to catalogue or sort first, and no obligation either way.
We’ve got your enquiry.
Your reference is your enquiry. Worth a note — quoting it saves you explaining everything again if you call.
We’ll review what you’ve sent and come back with a valuation, normally within 24 hours. If anything’s unclear we’ll ask — usually just one question.
Got photographs? Send them to info@SellLawBooks.co.uk quoting your reference and we’ll add them to the file.